Romney slams Obama's 'Fantasyland', 'detachment' from reality

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Responding to the president's State of the Union address last night, Mitt Romney this morning ripped President Obama as "speaking in Fantasyland" and "detached" from reality. He lamented what he sees as the president's leadership, which he labeled 'legislator's lethargy."

"As I watched the president speak I was reminded of his trip to Florida just a week or so ago when he spoke in Fantasyland, because he was speaking in Fantasyland again last night,” Romney said to laughter. "The detachment between reality and what he says is so extraordinary, I was just shaking my head. My guess is that what he didn't say was probably even more disturbing and detached from reality than some of the things he did say. What he didn't say last night is that we are spending too much and borrowing too much and that America is on a collision course with debt and that if we don't get off this course we could sink the American economy and go into calamity."

Romney listed several instances where he said the president's rhetoric and policy could not be aligned.

"This is a President who talks about deregulation, even as he regulates. He talks about lowering taxes, even as raises them. He talks about developing all of our energy resources, even as he tries to shut them down, coal in particular. Regulation after regulation, making it almost impossible for coal users and for coal miners to be successful. And then of course there was the discussion of China. I must admit that I took some pleasure in the fact that he said he would crack down on China, even as he has not done so," Romney said.

Speaking from the floor of a metal fabrication plant just outside Orlando, Romney described a president who promised big things, but who's inability to work with Congress and unwillingness to take charge of negotiations has blunted his ability to change Washington.

"There were times when the president said: If you send me this legislation, I will sign it. I thought, aren't you the leader of the free world? Why don't you draft some legislation? Why don't you go out and say: here's what I want? Here's what needs to happen. Come to the White House. Let's sit down and hammer this out together. This is what I want, you pass it. Then I'll sign it," Romney said. "Oh no, it was: you go out and work on this, then I'll sign it. It's kind of a legislator's lethargy. Where, instead of leadership, you're always blaming and accusing and pointing fingers, instead of playing golf, instead of taking action, you're lobbying others, instead of acting."

The lobbying critique Romney also spun into what could be construed as a subtle contrast with Newt Gingrich as well, whom Romney's campaign has attempted to label as lobbyist in recent days.

"Time to have a president who is not just a lobbyist, not just a legislator, not just a blamer and a campaigner, but a president who knows how to get the job done time and time again. I have, and I will," Romney said.